Sunday, November 2, 2014

If God be For Us - By John LaVier



In the 8th chapter of Romans we reach the climax of this wonderful book, and verse 31 seems to be the capstone of this great chapter. Here we read: "What shall we say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?"
"What shall we say to these things?" What things? Why, all the things that have preceded in the book of Romans. To review but a few of "these things" we discover that we who by nature were guilty sinners, have now been justified freely by God's grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. We have been justified by faith alone without the deeds of the law. We have righteousness without works. We have peace with God. We have been identified with Christ in His death and resurrection. We are not under the law but under grace. We are without condemnation in Christ. We have the Holy Spirit, and He bears witness with our spirits that we are the children of God, and if children, then heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ. We are waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God, and no suffering of the present is worth comparing with the glory that shall then be ours. Then we will be conformed to the image of God's Son. And even now God is causing all things to work together for our good, we who love Him and are called according to His purpose. "What shall we say then to these things?" About the only thing we can say, is "Glory to God! Hallelujah!"
Now notice the last half of this verse: "If God be for us, who can be against us?"
Oh beloved, may this truth come to you with unction and with freshness. God is for us. How convincingly and conclusively He has proved it. He could not have done more, for in verse 32 we read: "He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things." And that greatest of all gifts is the pledge of every gift that God can give us with His Son. May this great truth bring encouragement to us as we realize anew that He, the Everlasting God, is for us. Not just for a day, or a season, but for eternity, for we read in the verses that close this wonderful chapter that no power within or without, in earth, hell, or heaven, will ever be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. He is eternally committed to our cause.
We should now be prepared for Romans 12. Chapters 9, 10, and 11 of Romans are parenthetical and dispensational, and so we can jump right from Romans 8 to Romans 12, where we read in the opening verses: "I beseech you therefore, brethren by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."
In Romans 8 God is saying, "I am for you." In chapter 12 He is saying, "Now I want you to be for Me." In chapter 8 He is saying, "I delivered up My Son for you." In chapter 12 He is saying, "Now I want you to deliver up your body to Me." God made a great sacrifice for us when He gave His Son. Now He desires that we present ourselves to Him as living sacrifices. Such a sacrifice is acceptable to God, and when we make it we prove that His will is acceptable to us, as well as good and perfect.
May we all be impressed by these two things. The Revelation in chapter 8 and the Response in chapter 12. If God is for us, then we must be for Him.

 


 How God Saves Men
Believing Christ DIED, that’s HISTORY.
Believing Christ DIED for YOU SINS and Rose again that’s SALVATION.
Read Romans 1:16, Romans 10:9-10 and 1. Corinthians 15:1-4


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